Key Takeaways:

The expansion of biofuel-driven soybean crushing was expected to increase soymeal supplies and pressure prices as soyoil became a larger driver of crush economics, but soymeal has instead retained considerable value. Strong domestic and global feed demand has helped absorb additional soymeal production, while the gradual expansion of U.S. crush capacity has prevented the sudden wave of new supplies that some had anticipated. U.S. soymeal exports have grown at a compound annual rate of roughly 7.0 percent over the past decade, compared with 3.9 percent growth in production, increasing exports from about 26 percent to nearly 35 percent of total production. Competing vegetable oils have helped satisfy growing biofuel demand wit...